Posts Tagged My Little Pony

Posted by Andrew Stevens on October 18th, 2013+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

My Little Pony – Friendship is Magic gets the new Equestria Girls update, bringing a new dance mini-game to the app. So get ready to break out your dance moves while playing with Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Apple Jack, or Fluttersky; each of which have 4 new outfits with different in-game bonuses. Now go get your groove on to three new songs!

The modern era of asynchronous multiplayer has led to not only people playing more word games, but more people flagrantly cheating at them. After all, it’s a lot easier to cheat at something when the opponent can be physically far away, or someone completely unknown. There’s no immediate repercussions. So while Scrabble clones like Words With Friends have allowed for a cottage industry of cheating apps to rise up, to turn the tide in the favor of those who wish to win by any means necessary.

The cheats are quickly evolving beyond just looking up Scrabble words online, though: they’re starting to exploit this sufficiently advanced technology that we carry around in our pockets. One Words With Friends hack for jailbroken devices actually hijacked the game to make any word playable. And one App Store app for iOS original word game Letterpress makes cheating almost too easy.

Lettercheat doesn’t do anything as malicious as hijacking a game’s rules, but it does use an impressive technological trick for unscrupulous purposes: it recognizes the game board based on a screenshot, and analyzes the letters on the board to find the best words to be played. It can even find, when available, moves that will end the game instantaneously. But the developers, who ask only for $0.99 after getting to try 2 games of cheating (piggybacking off of Letterpress’ business model), also promise something else: the ability to “Smurf” a game board by turning it all blue in the game’s default theme. Even the avatar carries this theme.

But why? Why intentionally release an app that is designed to break a competitive multiplayer game like this?

Loren Brichter, creator of Letterpress, doesn’t know. “I don’t get it. But it’s an inherent human problem, you can solve it technically or legally — capitalism promises that where there’s a want there’s a product. Maybe it’s a by-product of the competitive primordial brain overwhelming the reason why you’re competing in the first place (to have fun).”

The Lettercheat creators did not respond to a direct email as of press time, but did share their reasoning on their website and in a blog post. They say that “Lettercheat is meant to be a companion app to the Letterpress game. We’re hoping that the app can help you develop strategy skills and better understand how to win. Plus it’s a lot of fun to see an entirely blue board.”

While there will be some that use this as a fun tool, there will be those who use it to try and win, and such a tool seems difficult to conquer. And because this is a multiplayer game, there doesn’t seem to be the kind of “victimless crime” aspect and moral imperative that some players of the recent My Little Pony game have claimed as why they use a hack that reduces or eliminates the cost for expensive items in the game. However, that game is primarily a singleplayer experience, and Letterpress is meant for fun with other players, though there’s no global leaderboard for those mastering the game. If this cheat allows people to have fun with the game, and if it’s used responsibly, what harm is there?

There isn’t really a good solution for these kinds of cheats, at least from a technical perspective, either for creators or players. But there is a human one, as Loren Brichter suggests: “play with friends you trust not to cheat.”

Posted by Jeff Scott on November 8th, 2012+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

It’s finally here. Some people will make fun of this game, but there is a large number of people who have been anxiously awaiting it and will absolutely love it. Gameloft has released a game set in the My Little Pony universe called My Little Pony – Friendship is Magic. In our preview of the game, we have a great video that will show you what you can expect in this city builder with mini games.

Try as I might, I can’t find another way to include Brony or Pegasister in this post. So I’ll just leave that there. (see what I did there?)

At Casual Connect 2012 in Seattle this week, Gameloft has announced six new titles that will try to cut a wide swath across the casual gaming spectrum.

The potentially biggest game on the list is the My Little Pony game – the series has a wide cross-generation appeal, being a show written for little girls, yet having found an adult male fanbase known as “bronies.” Creating a game that would have the same appeal seems like a tall order. The game will let players build their own Ponyville and play minigames, all featuring characters from the series.

Other games include UNO and Friends, a new version of the card game with online multiplayer that will let players take their games across phones, tablets, and Facebook. Monster Habitat will let players take care of papercraft monsters and the village they live in. Cosmic Colony will have players managing a colony on a mysterious planet. Kingdoms & Lords will be a simulation and strategy game where barbarians must be fended off, with multiplayer battles. Texas Poker for Prizes is exactly what it says on the tin. These games will begin rolling out before the end of summer.

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I am eager to let readers know about Oceanhouse Media’s annual app sale in honor of Dr. Seuss’s birthday from Wednesday, February 25 through Monday, March 9. During this time, five of their best-selling Seuss stories will be on sale for $0.99 each, and there will be discounts for other classic Dr. Seuss titles as […]